<table border="0" align="right" width="510"><tr><td><img src="http://www.wineloverspage.com/graphics1/howie.jpg" border="1"></td></tr></table>I have a PDA full of notes, and I saw lots of folks with notebooks at the weekend's NiagaraCool festivities, so more reports will be coming soon.

This one photo pretty much tells the story, though: Howie Hart was a smokin', cookin' fool (in the best sense) throughout the weekend, and many thanks are due him for generosity far beyond the call of duty in preparing and cooking enough great grilled fare to feed an army. Applause to Ed Draves, too, for driving the Saturday tour and organizing in general ... and extending a nice little discount to event participants at his wine shop.

Thank you Robin, the winery tours were no trouble at all. Jim from Standing Stone, Jeff from Johnson and Mike from Warm Lake were all eager to show off their wineries.
I remember Howie's cooking from last year, great stuff. I'm sorry I had to miss it (horrible timing for a stomach bug). His beans and greens soup is one of my favorite dishes.
I think Howie should be commended as well for his choice of venue for Saturday nights dinner (Sawyer Creek Hotel, Niagara Falls Blvd, North Tonnawanda, NY). The food/ sevice there was great, I'm going back there soon.

Sorry we missed you, too, Ed. We had a good group and some very interesting wines, many from the Eastern US and Canada but also some memorable French, Italian and German goodies. I don't believe there was a California or Australian wine on the table ... what an odd bunch!

[quote="Robin Garr"]Howie Hart was a smokin', cookin' fool (in the best sense) .......grilled fare to feed an army. Applause to Ed Draves, too, for driving the Saturday tour and organizing in general ... and extending a nice little discount to event participants at his wine shop. [quote]

Reminds me of the movie scene when Forrest Gump is running through town and the old guy at the barber shop watched him go by and said "Why that boy's a runnin' fool" . But, inspite of the cooking, I did take the time out to sit down and work my way through all 24 Rielsings entered in the taste-off (but I think that deserves a new thread).
Today is clean up day. With so many leftovers I'll be filling frezzer bags with beans & greens soup (I'll set some aside for you Ed), pasta, corn, etc. Thanks Ed for the Saturday lineup and thanks to Tyler and Joss for all their help in setting up and transporting the food and stuff.

James Roscoe wrote:Sounds like a fun event. How were the wines. Is anyone posting some notes?

Checking in from Pittsburgh airport (free wifi!) ... I've got my PDA raw material under construction and will try to get it done today - I'm also doing today's WineAdvisor about a couple of the wineries we visited. Gimme a few hours, willya?

I saw Tyler and Joss taking extensive notes, so I hope we can look for a report from that front. And maybe others? Paul B?

Well, I got home from work today and started cleaning things up (I was exhausted last night) and made several discoveries. I brought 10 Riedel red wine glasses to the picnic (I used to have 12, but broke 2) but now I have 11. Somebody forget one? Another nice larger wine glass left behind - I think it may be OW's. Somebody brought the makings of a fruit salad (grapes, blueberries, strawberries and melon), but it never got put out. Ed Draves and Lee Green were sick and had to miss the picnic, however, Ed's wife brought 2 coolers, at least one of which was never looked in, as when I got home last night I discovered one filled with Johnson Estate Wines and a bottle of Presque Isle Riesling, which never got put on the table for the taste-off, so Ed, Lee and I will have to sacrifice ourselves at the altar of Bacchus and post TNs on these wines when we get together. I found a bag of Reese's Pieces mixed in with my coking utensils. I have over 3 cases of wine with opened bottles and 2 cases of unopened wine. What am I gonna do?
I put the leftover Beans & Greens soup in zip-lock bags and froze them. I husked and blanched all the corn, put in zip-lock bags and froze them. I froze the leftover sausage, roast beef (10 lbs.), pasta, sausage rolls and fish (15 lbs.). I can't freeze the Kummelweck rolls, so when they dry out a bit, I'll scrape off the seeds and salt, run them throught the food processor and save them for bread crumbs. For the next few days I'll be eating potato salad, fruit salad and BBQ chicken (the ribs and deviled eggs were the only things that completely disappeared).

Robin, Howie, everyone - Just a quick note to first of all say a big THANK YOU to Howie, our genial and heroic host, for another amazing gathering and amazing foods. I was proud to be there with you and everyone else.

Second, I'd like to say that yes, my full report on the picnic WILL be posted, but it's going to likely be toward the end of this week as this is an extremely busy week at work for me, so I'm doing my notes bit by bit late each night. But yes, there will be a NiagaraCool '06 write-up from me soon!!

Let me echo some of the comments above. I had a great time at NiagaraCOOL. Special thanks to Howie for all the work in organizing the picnic, and for all the effort involved in purchasing, preparing, and cooking the food. I especially enjoyed the soup, though it was also great to have beef on a weck (haven't had that for years).

It was great to meet a number of folks I've only known through the WLDG. I'm impressed by the winemaking skills of the boardmembers. I certainly hope to see you all at NiagaraCOOL in the future (and Ed - hope you are feeling better; sorry I didn't get to meet you).

There were many good and interesting wines that I tasted. I don't have complete notes, and my notes on the Riesling tasting are sketchy in spots, and affected by palate fatigue - I would have liked to have longer to taste through the 24 wines, plus the three older Hillebrand Rieslings from the early '90s. In the next day or two I will pull together and post notes and comments on my favorites from the Riesling tasting, and some other wines I found interesting.

Howie,
Anne made the fruit salad (she was very careful to wash her hands as PearlAnne was not feeling well Saturday, we thought it was too much milk but..) so enjoy it w/o fear. I hope the Heron Hill & Ch Reneau Rieslings made it to the Taste-off- I suspect they were in the same cooler with the Johnsons and Presque Isle.
Steve,
Thankyou, I'm feeling much better today and will be "normal" by tomorrow. I hope to meet you soon as well. Sorry we missed you at Warm Lake, Mike Von Heckler gave the best winery presentation that I have ever heard. Did you at least get to taste?

Howie,
I've got to echo the words of everybody here. What a treat. You are a champ. The food was wonderful, the group in attendance small but enthusiastic, and the riesling tasteoff was pure pleasure.
Beth and I just returned from Rochester, where we went when we abandoned you at about 7 p.m. But the memory is still very fresh. If I knew how to post pictures, I'd post the totally obscene image of the rieslings resting in the cooler awaiting the tasteoff. And a couple of them lined up both before, and after, the tasting.
Thanks to everyone for making it a memorable event, and particularly to Howie for all his effort.
And, BobH, I did bring the 99 Bois de Boursan. Robin can give you the official word, but as a completely biased novice, I'd say buy it.
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